Acoma Indian Culture

The Acoma Indians centered their lives around the myth of the Corn Mother, known to them as Iatiku. Born in the underworld and nursed by Tsichtinako (who is known as the “Thought Woman”), Iatiku’s purpose is to “bring life to all the things in your baskets in order that the world be complete for you to rule over it” (Merchant 49). According to their beliefs, Iatiku is responsible for the creation of the four seasons and the spirits that ruled over each season, the formation of the “katsina,” who were Cloud-spirits of the ancestors that resided within a lake in Wenimats, and the inception of Tsitsanits, known as “Big Teeth,” who’s responsibility was ruling over the katsina. The intersubjective relationship that the Acoma Indians have with nature
is a direct result of the symbiotic relationship between Iatiku’s people, the humans of the earth, and the people of the katsina, who are the spirits of their ancestors. These Cloud-Spirits represent clouds, and are designated with bringing rain. Iatiku also teaches her people how to create sacred places, known as “kaach,” and also appointed a Hunt Chief and taught them the proper rituals in order to secure the power of the animals they hunted. The Corn Mother myth rationalized an intersubjective relationship with nature by creating important entities and rituals within the legend.
Iatiku’s statement that the humans and the spirits will feed one another, in the sense that the humans will honor the spirits and give offerings, and that the spirits will then grant a good hunt, is what ultimately created such a ubiquitous respect for nature and acknowledgement of its importance amount the Acoma people. This theme was present within a mass majority of practices of Eastern Woodland Indian tribes, and served as the main cause for their intimate relationship with their environment. However, the arrival of the Europeans drastically changed the practices of these Indian tribes, both through the resources that they brought into the New World and the enforcement and integration of Christianity. Europeans changed the agricultural practices of many tribes in different ways. One way was through the introduction of the horse and firearms to the New World. This caused a shift from agriculture within certain tribes to more of a nomadic lifestyle because hunting suddenly became convenient. Tribes “abandoned their ecological safety nets in order to concentrate year-round on bison hunting” because of the technological advancements through the horse and rifle (Merchant
65). But perhaps the greatest source of change came from a combination of new religious teachings and European goods. By accepting European goods, Native American tribes were inherently exposed to Christian religious teachings, which gave definition to these specific objects. Since items such as rifles were incapable of being explained by eastern woodland Indians, they were forced to adopt some forms of teachings in order to accurately comprehend the goods that they were now trading for and using. This shift to European material and abstract culture changed the role and view of eastern woodland tribes on their ecosystem. The Native American had “repudiated his role within the ecosystem” as they became disillusioned to their native teachings and mythologies and adopted Christian, and thus European, views. Tribes like the Micmac “became dependent on the European marketplace both spiritually and economically,” changing their role within their ecosystem from “conservator to exploiter.” Through this introduction of one society to another, and through the trade of material and cultural goods, many eastern woodland tribes completely changed their role with nature.